Free English Language Dissertations - Additionally, In 1985, Diaz And Padilla Conducted Research That Demonstrated
Additionally, in 1985, Diaz and Padilla conducted research that demonstrated that bilingual children were better at classifying than their monolingual counterparts.
The Work of Cummins
The research done by Cummins in the late 1970s suggested that the process here was much more complex than it originally seemed. Cummins developed what he called a "threshold level of competence" (1986). His theory was that children who are bilingual must reach a certain level of threshold competence before they are able to continue in their cognitive development. Higher thresholds of bilingual competence would be required for this to happen.
However, the possibility that bilingual children might actually have an edge over monolingual children of the same age seems difficult for many to accept. It is as though people do not want to acknowledge that bilingualism may in fact give children a cognitive advantage. Takakuwa goes on to point out that even with the evidence clearly proving that bilingual children have increased abilities and skills, the prevailing theories tend to disregard this: "More recent research on bilingualism has shown that there is an opposing view that bilingualism has a positive effect on children's cognitive development" (Takakuwa 2000). He cites the work of Bialystok (1988), Day and Shapson (1996) and Home (1987) to support this.
Takakuwa thoroughly analyzes the research and the conclusions that were drawn in his well-researched article. His first point of contention regards methodology. He discusses that there were methodological controls in place. These controls included socioeconomic status, gender, and age group. However, Takakuwa does not believe that this is sufficient, since "selection according these criteria does not guarantee that the variables of children's families and other background factors such as student motivation and parental attitude are controlled" (2000).
Takakuwa's next argument is one of defining terms. He asserts that there are such a wide variety of definitions for the concept of "intelligence." He also claims that tools for measuring intelligence are inconsistent. I.Q. is one way of measuring intelligence, but even this is a matter of dispute. Therefore, if intelligence cannot be reliably or accurately measured to the satisfaction of all researchers, the data loses much of its impact. The term "cognitive development" is also one that has a wide number of definitions. According to Takakuwa, "cognitive development" may mean one thing in one study, and something completely different in another.
Dissertations - Free English Language Dissertations
